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Good Friday, observed on March 26, 2027 (the Friday immediately preceding Easter Sunday), is the most solemn day of the Christian liturgical calendar, commemorating the Passion and crucifixion of Jesus Christ at Calvary (Golgotha) outside Jerusalem. Forming the centerpiece of the Paschal Triduum alongside Holy Thursday and the Easter Vigil, Good Friday is also observed as an official statutory public holiday and financial market closure across dozens of countries worldwide.
Since the earliest centuries of the Church in Jerusalem and Rome, Good Friday has been observed as a day of strict fasting and mourning during which no Eucharistic Mass is consecrated. Following the fourth-century accounts recorded by the pilgrim Egeria in 381 AD, the liturgy centers on the afternoon service at 3:00 PM—the scriptural ninth hour when Jesus breathed his last on the cross. Worshippers gather before a stripped altar with extinguished sanctuary lamps for the reading of St. John's Passion, the Solemn Intercessions, the Veneration of the Cross, and the distribution of Communion consecrated on Holy Thursday.
In the Old City of Jerusalem, thousands of pilgrims walk the cobblestone Via Dolorosa (Way of Sorrows), carrying wooden crosses through the fourteen Stations of the Cross from the Antonia Fortress site to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which encloses both Calvary and the Tomb. After nightfall in Rome, the Pope presides over the candlelit Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) around the ancient amphitheater of the Roman Colosseum, broadcast live across continents.
Good Friday is a universal day of fasting and abstinence from meat, inspiring enduring culinary traditions. Across the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States, bakeries serve warm spiced Hot Cross Buns—yeasted sweet buns studded with currants and raisins and marked on top with a white flour-paste or icing cross—a tradition linked to fourteenth-century St Albans Abbey in England (1361). In Bermuda, residents fly colorful handmade hexagonal kites and eat codfish cakes, while families across Italy, Spain, and Latin America prepare salted cod (bacalao) and meatless Lenten stews.
Good Friday is a statutory national public holiday in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Germany (Karfreitag), Brazil, Mexico, Singapore, South Africa, and 12 U.S. states (including New Jersey, Connecticut, North Carolina, Indiana, and Texas). Furthermore, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), Nasdaq, London Stock Exchange, Frankfurt Stock Exchange, and Toronto Stock Exchange all close completely for trading on Good Friday.
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Good Friday is scheduled for March 26, 2027. The countdown timer at the top of the page updates the days remaining in real time.
In 2027, Good Friday falls on Friday, March 26, 2027, two days before Easter Sunday (March 28). Because Easter is a movable feast calculated from the vernal equinox and paschal full moon, Good Friday shifts annually between March 20 and April 23.
In English, 'Good' in Good Friday derives from the older sense of the word meaning 'holy' or 'pious' (comparable to ' the Good Book' for the Bible), and reflects the Christian theological belief that Christ's sacrificial death on the cross brought redemption and eternal good to humanity.
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), Nasdaq, and US bond markets are completely closed on Good Friday. Because Good Friday is a state holiday in 12 US states rather than a federal reserve holiday, most national retail banks remain open, though some local branches in observing states close.
Good Friday is a statutory national public holiday across Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Singapore, the Philippines, Nigeria, and South Africa, as well as in 12 US states including Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas.
According to the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), darkness fell over the land from noon (the sixth hour) until 3:00 PM (the ninth hour), the moment when Jesus died on the cross. Many churches hold the Celebration of the Passion of the Lord or the 'Three Hours' Devotion' from 12:00 PM to 3:00 PM.
By ancient liturgical tradition, the Catholic Church does not celebrate the sacraments (except Penance and Anointing of the Sick) on Good Friday and Holy Saturday. Instead of a Mass with Eucharistic consecration, the Good Friday service features the Liturgy of the Word, the Veneration of the Cross, and Holy Communion using hosts consecrated the evening before on Holy Thursday.
Along with Ash Wednesday, Good Friday is a mandatory day of fasting and abstinence in the Catholic Church. Worshippers aged 14 and older abstain from eating meat, and adults aged 18 to 59 fast by eating only one full meal (plus two small meatless snacks if needed to maintain strength).
Tradition traces Hot Cross Buns to 1361 at St Albans Abbey in England, where Brother Thomas Rodcliffe baked spiced 'Alban Buns' marked with a cross to distribute to the poor on Good Friday. English folklore held that buns baked on Good Friday would never grow moldy and protected households throughout the year.
The Stations of the Cross (Via Crucis) is a 14-step devotion retracing Jesus's path from Pontius Pilate's condemnation to Calvary and his burial in the tomb. On Good Friday, parishes pray the Stations indoors or in outdoor street processions, led globally by the Pope's nighttime service at the Roman Colosseum.
After decades without football on Good Friday, the Australian Football League (AFL) introduced the annual Good Friday SuperClash at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne, hosted by the North Melbourne Kangaroos to raise funds for the Royal Children's Hospital Good Friday Appeal.